The time has come again!? The option of stun guns has been brought forth for Novembers gathering.? I will be bringing my cattle prod if anyone wants to give it a try.? It is a lower (amp or volt - I forget which) so rather than knocking one out it makes you loose function of your muscles.? It is meant as you may already know, to move cattle.? For larger livestock it simply lights a fire under their butts to get moving.? For us humans it is a little more than just a fire.? ?

The rhythm of the seasons is with us and its time for the "Fall Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack". On behalf of the Council of Elders of the Dog Brothers, Dog Brothers Inc. Martial Arts hereby cordially invites you to its "Dog Brothers Fall Gathering of the Pack" at 11:00 AM on Sunday, November 19, 2006 at the RAW Gym in El Segundo to conclude when the fighters are done.

Many of you may remember our Gatherings held in the park in Hermosa Beach, which, although they were hosted at considerable expense, were always free to you our friends, our guests. However with a private facility involved we now need to charge admission of $15. We ask that you still consider yourselves to be our friends and our guests. In this context we ask that you respect our wishes in the matter of Video.

It is very simple:

NO VIDEO CAMERAS, NO DUAL PURPOSE CAMERAS (i.e. with both still photo and video capabilities). THIS MATTER IS OF IMPORTANCE TO US! And, if you see someone videoing, please don't let them abuse our hospitality-please let us know.

As always, you may take photographs for personal, non-commercial use PROVIDED you give us a complete set of the ones you take. Thanks to the increasing numbers of you who actually remember and bother to do this! It is very much appreciated!

The Magic Words:

The MAGIC WORDS: "No judges, no referees, no trophies. One rule only: Be friends at the end of the day. This means our goal is that no one spends the night in the hospital. Our goal is that everyone leaves with the IQ with which they came. No suing no one for no reason for nothing no how no way! Real Contact Stickfighting is Dangerous and only you are responsible for you. Protect yourself at all times. All copyright belongs to Dog Brothers Inc. CA law applies."

This matter of accepting the risk applies to those of you in the crowd too. For example, sticks, and fights for that matter, may go flying into the crowd. Parents should consider things like this in deciding whether a child is old enough to bring along and/or deciding on from where to observe the event. For example, sitting on the heavy bags ringing the fighting area is a really risky idea for a child (or adult for that matter). If a stick or a fight comes careening your way-get out of the way!

This matter of copyright is of particular importance with this Gathering. It is 97% certain that Spike TV will be recording the day as part of having 5 "webisodes" of approximately 5 minutes each which will appear on their website. Spike will be at the door with some sort of legal release giving it permission to have you (fighters & audience members) appear in the webisodes, not sue them, etc. Spike also will be looking to interview some of the fighters that they will feature in the webisodes.

At this Gathering, we will continue starting the knife fights with a handshake and the knives undrawn. Again we encourage you to fight knife versus stick-- the stick versus electric knife fight last time was a great success and the electric knife will again be available. Stick vs. knife has been one of perennial questions of the FMA, so let's continue the research! In a similar vein, we have word that there will be a couple of cattle prods available either for "cattle prod versus stick" or "cattle prod versus cattle prod".

Remember that you may fight with weapons other than a stick if you can find someone willing to go against you. Please consider staff, double stick, and anything else. In order to more deeply explore certain variables, fighters may agree to "no grappling" rules. In staff fights, the fighters may wear wrestling type ear guards under the fencing masks.

There is no charge for fighters but FIGHTERS MUST PRE-REGISTER, even if they have fought before. The Fighter's Registration form can be found on the website. If you are a member of the Dog Brothers tribe an email or phone call will suffice. For all Fighter Registration matters, please contact Cindy at Prettykitty@dogbrothers.com 310-540-6853. You are not pre-registered until your name appears on the list of registered fighters on the website!!!

If you have fought before and show up without having pre-registered there will be a $20 fee. We REALLY, REALLY, REALLY don't like having to deal with this on such a busy day so please do both you and us a favor and pre-register. If you haven't fought before and you show up without having pre-registered, you will not be allowed to fight. This will be ruthlessly enforced!

Spike has asked that you please avoid wearing t-shirts with corporate logos, basedball/football/basketball team logos and things of that sort. Also, please be aware that the mat is black so wearing black can present difficult contrast issues for the camera. If your want to wear your system's colors and the shirt is black, we can work with it, but other things being equal please minimize the black shirts.

Also we suggest arriving a bit earlier than usual because of various matters pertaining to Spike's shoot of the day.

I'm told that some of Spike's "big dogs" are coming out from NYC to check out what we're about. Who knows where this could lead , , ,

I wanted to throw it out there before I run into a similar problem that Marc Scott had last year concerning misoks:

Does anyone want to do cattle prod vs. cattle prod with me this Sunday? Without sounding like a wuss, I have already mentally ruled out a few people simply because I don't think I am yet prepared to fight them. But nonetheless . . . . .

Hello compadres!Now I have a computer again, I can lurk to my hearts content! w00tI met a bunch of you guys this November.Man what a time, I am stoked for June and ready to start training.Truly a highlight of my life, I am still going over it in my head and writing notes. Congrats to those who were promoted, I look forward to seeing those of you who attend in June again.I lost my book of email addresses I collected I think I dropped it in the airport, it was very early.Thank you to everyone who fought with me.Before I go, is there an ETA on the photos Indrus took? I have been waiting to show my wife and the guys I train with!Guro Crafty?~phil form van

Gints told me it has been pushed back a few days but he was planning on sorting through the 1500 pictures soon (I assume this week). My grandma has been asking for me to bring some pictures to Christmas so I too can't wait until they are posted as well!

Gints told me it has been pushed back a few days but he was planning on sorting through the 1500 pictures soon (I assume this week). My grandma has been asking for me to bring some pictures to Christmas so I too can't wait until their are posted as well!Gruhn

Wow, just saw the photos, thanks to Pretty Kitty for putting them all up!that was a lot of fun, thanks to Guro Crafty for hosting, and all the guys i fought with.I can't wait for June.nice job on the photos Indrus Indris. sorry for spelling.

Indris makes a special trip to the Gathering just to do the photography. He has a conflict for June 2007 (possibly moving to New York), but perhaps I can get him to attend anyway. It takes quite a bit of experience and guts to get on the mat with a bunch of crazy guys swinging sticks and you know you have to get close for any good pictures.